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JOHN P. MEASE is numbered among the honored, early residents of Benton county, and during the past fifty-two years his home has been in Benton county. He was born in Lebanon county Pennsylvania, August 27, 1830, a son of Philip M. and Sallie (Weaver) Mease. Henry Weaver, the maternal grandfather, came to the United States from Germany during the Revolution, and en route met his future wife. Reaching this country he entered the American army and fought through the remainder of the war, the young lady in the meantime assisting her patriotic sisters in raising provisions for the soldiers. They were married after his return home, and lived and farmed in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, until their deaths, he at the age of ninety-four and she at the age of eighty-four. Mrs. Mease was one of their large family of children. Philip M. Mease's early home was along the banks *of the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, and he learned and followed the blacksmith's trade until injured by a horse, from that time on being a teamster. Coming to Benton county, Iowa, in 1860 he bought eighty acres of land and made his home with his son John until his death at the age of eighty-one years. He was a stanch Whig, and both he and his wife were Lutherans.
John P. Mease was the second born of their six children, but he now has only two brothers living, the younger, Jacob, living in Pennsylvania, and Henry Mease resides at Dysart, Iowa. The former was a Civil war soldier. John P. Mease was reared in Pennsylvania, and that commonwealth continued as his home until he was twenty-three. Going then to Ohio and Indiana he spent some two years in those states, and coming to Benton county, Iowa, in 1855, he located first in Big Grove township and secured forty acres of land there, farming and at the same time following his trade of cabinet making. He came to this county during the memorable panic of those days, but in the face of all difficulties he won his way to success and has recently sold his one hundred and twenty acres of the fine farming land of Jackson township, the place being located between Vinton and Garrison. He owns a comfortable home at Vinton.
Mr. Mease married in Big Grove in 1859 Miss Cassandra Page, born in New Hampshire, and at her death in 1870 she left two children. The elder, Frank Mease, is the editor and proprietor of the Madison Sentinel at Madison, South Dakota, and he is married and has two sons. Minnie is now in California. Mrs. Mease was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Joseph and Christena (Bergman) Page. Joseph Page was of German parentage but a native of Pennsylvania, and he died in that state in about the year of 1855. Mrs. Page afterward married Father Kelly and moved to Iowa City, Iowa, where Mr. Kelly died. Mrs. Kelly moved to the home of her son, Samuel, where she died. On the 21st of January, 1871, Mr. Mease married Mss Elizabeth Hayman, and they have four sons and two daughters, namely: J. Clarence, conducting his farm in Big Grove township, and he is married and has three children; Roy, a Jackson township farmer, is married and has two children; Bey D. has traveled extensively and is now employed in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Lucy married Ed. Thompson, and has a son, Howard; Elsie married Earl H. Davenport and is living in Toledo; and Edward, attending the commercial college at Waterloo. Mr. Mease has in politics been a life-long Republican, casting his first vote in 1856 and his first presidential vote was cast for John C. Fremont. Since those early days he has been an active campaign worker. He has membership relations with the fraternal order of Odd Fellows at Vinton, and in 1850 he was confirmed in the Lutheran church, but his religious home has been with the Presbyterians. He is one of the revered pioneer residents of Vinton.
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